Varney the Vampire

James Malcolm Rymer (1814-1884) was a writer of penny dreadfuls and is one of the possible authors of Varney the Vampire (1847). Another possible author was Thomas Preskett Prest. Very little is known about James Malcolm Rymer except that he was a writer of thrillers from the 1840's to the 1860 's for the English bookseller and publisher, Edward Lloyd. In the London Directory for 1841 he is listed as a civil engineer, living at 42 Burton Street, and the British Museum catalogue mentions him in 1842 as editing the Queen's Magazine. Rymer's novels appeared in England under his own name as well as under the anagrams Malcolm J. Errym and Malcolm J. Merry.